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We’re on the precipice of The Holidays now, again: where has the time gone, where has the year gone, where is my life going, etc. If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, perhaps you’re already gone, reading this in the security line at an airport less crowded than you expected. Do you dare admit some optimism, that this trip could go off without incident? But this is just the beginning of your travels, of course. Who knows if the good luck and the good weather will hold — here’s hoping.
The holiday season has its own engine, one that’s been gaining momentum since Halloween and will shift into ever higher gears as we hit the straightaway that leads to the year’s end. There’s an urgency that can feel both exciting and overwhelming. There’…
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We’re on the precipice of The Holidays now, again: where has the time gone, where has the year gone, where is my life going, etc. If you’re traveling for Thanksgiving, perhaps you’re already gone, reading this in the security line at an airport less crowded than you expected. Do you dare admit some optimism, that this trip could go off without incident? But this is just the beginning of your travels, of course. Who knows if the good luck and the good weather will hold — here’s hoping.
The holiday season has its own engine, one that’s been gaining momentum since Halloween and will shift into ever higher gears as we hit the straightaway that leads to the year’s end. There’s an urgency that can feel both exciting and overwhelming. There’s a tension in all the stock holiday scenes: cheery and/or awkward gatherings, delicious and/or overcooked proteins, snowy and/or soggy backdrops. Not many days left, and so even in moments of abundance, there’s a scarcity underneath.
How much of this is real, and how much of it is just our acceptance of the fiction that the end of the calendar year is a deadline by which certain things must be accomplished? Remember when marketers tried to scare you by announcing there were only so many “shopping days until Christmas” left? In the era of “buy it now” and same-day shipping, a shopping day seems quaint. Yes, vacation days and insurance deductibles must be exploited or lost, but otherwise, there’s a comfort in knowing the end of the year isn’t really a finish line in any meaningful way.
An old friend wrote me a month or two ago suggesting coffee, asking for dates that worked this fall. I forgot to respond, and this week she followed up: “Frankly you could suggest Jan. dates — I get how time is compressing right now!” My immediate response was one of shame. I’d dropped the ball! And then that feeling of scarcity: Yes, time is compressing, and there’s not enough of it, and let me count exactly how many days are left in the year so I can really feel the squeeze. (After today, 40!) And then gratitude for the reminder: Some things can wait until January.
Most things, really, can wait until January, and maybe they should. If your holiday season already feels too packed, here, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, then see what might be shifted. If you’re dreading that post-holiday lull when Christmas trees lie felled on the curb and you have no reason to wear your “fun” sweaters, then now’s the time to joyously, eagerly move what you can to next year. Your holiday to-dos and celebrations need to stay put (although, if your family is flexible, no one’s stopping you from moving them, too), but the optional stuff — the coffee dates and catch-ups, the movies and books you keep meaning to get to — won’t expire.
Every first weekend of January, I go away with the same group of friends. It’s a tradition that feels defiant: In the severe landscape of the Northeastern winter, when December’s merrymaking is receding to memory, there’s a reprieve, a reminder that we don’t have to get all our fun in before the clock strikes midnight.
What things are you trying to squeeze in before the end of the year that, if you moved them to January, would make the next few weeks a little less stressful? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
THE LATEST NEWS
Trump-Mamdani Meeting
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Credit...Eric Lee for The New York Times
President Trump heaped praise on Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s mayor-elect, during his visit to the White House. “I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump said.
The meeting seemed to change Trump’s view of Mamdani, a democratic socialist whom he had previously described as a “lunatic.”
After a reporter asked Mamdani about his calling Trump a “despot” on election night, Trump said, “I’ve been called much worse than a despot, so it’s not that insulting.”
More Politics
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia announced she would resign from Congress in January. Greene, long one of Trump’s fiercest defenders, had recently drawn the president’s ire after breaking from him on a number of issues.
The Supreme Court temporarily reinstated Texas’ new, Republican-friendly congressional map, which a lower court had blocked earlier in the week.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he personally instructed the C.D.C. to abandon its longstanding position that vaccines do not cause autism.
A judge said prosecutors could fall back on local grand juries to approve serious charges when they failed to persuade a federal grand jury, sanctioning a recent such attempt by the Justice Department.
International
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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Wednesday.Credit...Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Ukraine’s president said his country’s relationship with the U.S. could be at a breaking point over a peace plan proposed by the White House that favors Russia.
A Times investigation into the U.S. Navy’s positions in the Caribbean suggests that the Trump administration is more interested in pressuring the Venezuelan government than in fighting drug traffickers.
Other Big Stories
Eli Lilly, the maker of hugely popular weight loss drugs, has reached $1 trillion in value. It’s the first health care company to hit that milestone.
A series of storms moving across the country could complicate Thanksgiving travel. Here’s a look at weather around the U.S.
THE WEEK IN CULTURE
Movies
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Ariana Grande, left, and Cynthia Erivo in “Wicked: For Good.”Credit...Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
“Wicked: For Good” features two new songs that help Glinda and Elphaba grapple with the choices that change their destinies. Director Jon M. Chu insists the songs were added for plot development and not for a shot at an Oscar nomination.
A new documentary featuring senior members of the government claims that the U.S. is hiding what it knows about U.F.O.s. The filmmaker screened it for House members this week.
Music
The British government is taking on ticket scalpers. New legislation backed by Coldplay, Dua Lipa and Radiohead would make it illegal to resell entertainment or sports tickets for more than face value.
More than 30 years after finding two unsigned compositions for organ in a Belgian library, a Harvard researcher has announced that he knows who composed them: Johann Sebastian Bach.
Theater
This new version of “Oedipus” on Broadway casts Sophocles’s tragic king as a politician in an age where elected officials can get away with almost anything.
A theater director in Switzerland recruited amateur actors that had anorexia. One of the performers called it empowering. But was it unethical?
Opera
The hero of San Francisco Opera’s latest world premiere isn’t a handsome prince, but an ancient monkey king who was hatched from a magic rock. Our reviewer had effusive praise for the production, which will be available on streaming services.
Daniele Rustioni, the Metropolitan Opera’s new principal guest conductor, is only 42. But he has been called a “maestro of the old school,” following in the footsteps of Italian luminaries like Arturo Toscanini.
More Culture
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One of the virtual reality rooms at the Netflix House.Credit...Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times
Netflix opened its first permanent IRL location near Philadelphia. Its immersive exhibits include “Bridgerton” balls and a “Money Heist” escape room.
Groups are declining grants from the National Endowment for the Arts rather than comply with the Trump administration’s anti-D.E.I. policies.
The Louvre’s first female president is trying to hold on to her job following the October heist.
A self-portrait by Frida Kahlo that shows her sleeping underneath a skeleton sold for $55 million at an auction at Sotheby’s, setting a record for the artist.
Roblox, the online gaming platform that is enormously popular with kids, this week introduced a system to assess users’ ages by scanning their faces. (The company’s C.E.O. went on Hard Fork, The Times’s tech podcast, to talk about child safety.)
CULTURE CALENDAR
🎬 “Hamnet”: In 1596, William Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, died at the age of 11. Little is known of him beyond those basic facts. But Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel bearing the boy’s name conjured an entire world around him and imagined the devastation that his death brought onto his family. Now Chloé Zhao, who won an Oscar for directing “Nomadland,” has adapted the story for the screen, with Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley starring. When the film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, The Times’s Nicole Sperling described it as “a 10-hanky weepie.”
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Credit...Yossy Arefi for The New York Times
Pumpkin Soup
This is a good weekend to keep things simple as far as dinner is concerned. Simmering up a pot of Lidey Heuck’s pumpkin soup is not only easy and satisfying, it will make good use of all the pumpkin purée that’s taken over the canned vegetable aisle at the supermarket. Creamy yet light, scented with curry powder and sweetened with a touch of maple syrup and apple cider, it’s a fragrant, warming kickoff to this hectic holiday week.
REAL ESTATE
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Jamie McPartland and Peter Oviatt with their daughter, Oksana, and dog, Nino.Credit...Dan Cronin for The New York Times
**The Hunt: **After wandering through a series of short-term rentals in France, Turkey and Morocco, a young family decided to settle in Portland. What did they choose for their forever home? Play our game.
What you get for $900,000: An Eastlake Victorian in New Orleans, a Queen Anne Revival in Rapid City, S.D., and an American Foursquare in Minneapolis.
A peek inside: The actor F. Murray Abraham opened up his home to the Times. Find out where he keeps his Oscar and what he got at Marlon Brando’s estate sale.
LIVING
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ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER
How to win at white elephant
Played right, a white elephant gift swap can be better than spiked punch at upping the humor and excitement of holiday gatherings. But it does require a clear code of conduct. First, before invitations go out, settle on a monetary limit. Then, to keep things fun, fair and relatively peaceful, decide how many times each gift can be stolen before it’s off limits. And determine whether the person who drew first gets to steal or unwrap a final gift at the end. Game aside, the true golden rule is something I stand by in all areas of my life: Bring a good gift. What that means will change depending on the guests, but here are a few of the most-stolen gifts from my own white elephant parties over the years. — Samantha Schoech
For handpicked gift ideas and expert advice, sign up for the Gift newsletter from Wirecutter.
GAME OF THE WEEK
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Gotham F.C. celebrating a goal in the semifinals.Credit...Kevin Kolczynski/Associated Press
Gotham F.C. vs. Washington Spirit, N.W.S.L. final: “Underdog, my ass.” That was Jaedyn Shaw, a star of Gotham F.C., after her squad — the lowest seed in the playoffs — defeated top-seeded Kansas City in the first round. Gotham then took down last year’s champs, the Orlando Pride, thanks to a goal by Shaw in the game’s final moments.
Now, in the championship, Gotham will face the Spirit. As The Athletic’s Emily Olsen writes in her preview of the match, the teams have a good rivalry cooking; over the N.W.S.L.’s 12 seasons, they have played against each other more than any other two teams. The Spirit, for their part, would benefit from an appearance by Trinity Rodman, one of the world’s best players, who has been recovering from a knee injury and played just a few minutes in the semifinal.
Tonight, 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS
NOW TIME TO PLAY
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Melissa Kirsch covers wellness and lifestyle and writes The Morning newsletter on Saturdays.
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